Cynefin is a decision-making tool, helpful in deciding what kind of decision to take in a particular context of a situation. It can be used both at a strategic level and in these series of articles I am offering ideas on how Cynefin can be used as a tactical decision-making tool by Scrum teams while doing day-to-day work.

There are several areas in Scrum where Cynefin can be applied to aid in the decision making process. It can be used in refinement to decide on the type of action to take based on classifying the context of the problem being solved.

Today, let’s discuss on the use of Cynefin day-to-day in a Sprint while doing the work. And while at it, I shall also point you to some learning concepts on what the various Cynefin domains are and what is a typical action to take in a given domain. In future articles, we will explore how to apply Cynefin techniques to refinement, retrospectives, and other areas of Scrum.

Various types of decision making require you to identify which domain you are in and how to apply appropriate action when you have identified that you are indeed in that domain context. For more information on the Cynefin domains and the framework, please refer to the Cognitive Edge video below at the end of the article.

Continue reading “Applying Cynefin to day-to-day Scrum (Part 1)”